Sunday, June 07, 2015

Wowser! Its been a 3 whole weeks since I regaled you with reviews of all the books I had read. Have you missed me? I certainly hope so for I have missed you and writing this. I apologise for the lack of WIR but I have been on holiday, mainly visiting my elderly mother which didn't leave a lot of time for either reading or writing reviews. I am back now and I have a couple of great books to tell you about.

I started my holiday with the final book in Susan Ee's Penryn and the End of Days series. I absolutely loved book 1 - Angelfallwhich introduced us to the plucky teenager Penryn, her disturbed mother and disabled sister. She was doing everything she could to survive following the angel apocalypse. She is joined by one of the enemy - an angel named Rafe who has lost his wings. I didn't however, enjoy book 2 - World After as much as I felt Penryn spent more time swooning over Rafe than she did trying to save her family. Book 3 is the end of the trilogy which finds Penryn a leader in the revolution against the tyranny of the angels. Part of her journey involves uncovering Rafe's past and she isn't sure whether or not he is as innocent as those snowy white wings have led led her to believe. I thought this final instalment was an improvement on the previous novel however, neither has lived up to the gripping excitement and overall 'coolness' of book 1 - Angelfall. I think that Ee would have had a much more powerful story had she not resorted to the happy ever ending.

I then discovered that the latest in the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones had been published - Eighth Grave After Dark. The story starts several months after the end of book 7 with Charley and Reyes now living in an abandoned convent so that she can escape the hellhounds that are baying for her blood. Charley has more than just the birth of her baby to celebrate but the marriage of her best friend Cookie and her uncle Ubie. Nothing is ever straight forward for Charley as the ghost of an murdered nun needs her help to solve her murder, there is the issue of the hell hounds to resolve, Reyes hasn't slept in months and oh yeah, she is about to give birth to a prophecy. All in a days work.

I have enjoyed this series but I did find that this instalment really dragged until almost the ending. Apart from the dead nun plot line it could have read like one of those filler shows on TV composed of flashbacks. However, things started to get very exciting towards the end and Jones leaves us with a corker of a ending. I can hardly wait until book 9!

Another instalment out this week was Red Angel which is the fourth in Helen Harper's Bo Blackman's series. Bo has become somewhat of a celebrity following the events at the ending of book 3. With the help of the daemon X Bo's rise to stardom turns meteoric much to her disdain. Her popularity with the press makes it very difficult to investigate the missing persons case of Tobias Renfrew - the billionaire daemon who went missing in the 60's. The investigation is secondary and you could even say tertiary to the real storyline which is Bo's relationship with her maker the enigmatic vampire Michael and the ever increasingly blurred line between her humanity and the monster within.

I liked this instalment. Harper keeps it gritty with Bo's descent into her dark side through the events that unfold during her investigation of the missing person's case. This is a very quick read as are all of Harper's books. I wouldn't say it is the best writing ever but still entertaining. Love, love, love the cover!

The final book I am going to tell you about switches from urban fantasy to science fiction with Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey series, specifically book 1 - Hammered. This is very much the story of the former Canadian soldier Jenny Casey who is one of the first human cyborgs. She had been enjoying relative anonymity until the army comes calling again and she finds herself just another cog in the race into space. Jenny is lured back to Canada with a tale that her implants are failing and without more pioneering surgery she will soon die. The stick to this carrot is that Jenny has to help the government get the first spaceship up and running. While the story is about Jenny we are also introduced to Razorface her enhanced friend and gang kingpin who along with a former cop and an assassin try to solve a murder and to find a way to help Jenny. The story also include POVs from other minor characters but the 'action' is focused on what is happening to Jenny and to Razorface.

I enjoyed this book and thought that Bear was brave having her protagonist be a 50 year old female who is covered in scars and is almost more machine than human. I also found the pacing consistent all the way through with a good mix of action and back-story. I did, however, find some of the wording a bit odd and I felt in parts that it had been translated into English (and not the parts where the characters were speaking French either!). Overall, a good read and I have already bought book 2.

That is it for me for this week. I hope you have had a good week in reading. I have some crackers of books lined up for next week so until then Happy Reading.

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